Cutter Expansive Classification

The Cutter Expansive Classification system is a library classification system devised by Charles Ammi Cutter. The system was the basis for the top categories of the Library of Congress Classification.

Many libraries found this system too detailed and complex for their needs, and Cutter received many requests from librarians at small libraries who wanted the classification adapted for their collections. While numbers and letters are required in large library classifications, small libraries did not need their classification system to be too specific. He devised the Expansive Classification in response, to meet the needs of growing libraries, and to address some of the complaints of his critics.

Cutter completed and published an introduction and schedules for the first six classifications of his new system (Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications), has been called one of the most logical and scholarly of American classifications. It did not catch on as did Dewey's system because Cutter died before it was completely finished, making no provision for the kind of development necessary as the bounds of knowledge expanded and scholarly emphases changed throughout the twentieth century.

The first classification is meant for very small libraries. The first classification has only seven top-level classes, and only eight classes in total:

• A Works of reference and general works which include several of the following sections, and so could not go in any one.
• B Philosophy and Religion
• E Biography
• F History and Geography and Travels
• H Social sciences
• L Natural sciences and Arts
• Y Language and Literature
• YF Fiction

Further expansions add more top-level classes and subdivisions. Many subclasses arranged systematically, with common divisions, such as those by geography and language, following a consistent system throughout.

By the fifth classification all the letters of the alphabet are in use for top-level classes. These are:

• A General Works
• B Philosophy
• C Christianity and Judaism
• D Ecclesiastical History
• E Biography
• F History, Universal History
• G Geography and Travels
• H Social Sciences
• I Demotics, Sociology
• J Civics, Government, Political Science
• K Legislation
• L Science and Arts together
• M Natural History
• N Botany
• O Zoology
• P Anthropology and Ethnology
• Q Medicine
• R Useful arts, Technology
• S Constructive arts (Engineering and Building)
• T Manufactures and Handicrafts
• U Art of War
• V Recreative arts, Sports, Games, Festivals
• W Art
• X English Language
• Y English and American literature
• Z Book arts

These schedules were not meant to be fixed, but were to be adapted to meet the needs of each library. For example, books on the English language may be put in X, and books on language in general in a subclass of X, or this can be reversed. The first option is less logical, but results in shorter marks for most English language libraries.

1. 1 2 3 4 5 Murray, Stuart (2009). The Library: An Illustrated History. Skyhorse Publishing. p. 205.
2. ↑ For the Expansive Classification as a response to Cutter's critics, see: Miksa 1977, p. 58
   • For the Expansive Classification as a response to the growing needs of libraries, see Miksa 1977, p. 58 and LaMontagne 1961, p. 209.
   • The above issues are also discussed by Cutter in Cutter 1891–93.
3. 1 2 3 Miksa, Francis L., ed. (1977). Charles Ammi Cutter: Library Systematizer. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
4. ↑